Friday, February 3, 2012

This may seem a little pricey for what is essentially a two-trick DVD, but it does give you over an hour of teaching covering the revolution color change. Aaron Fisher is an incredible teacher, and there is literally no nuance left out of his teaching of this move. I promise you that with a few minutes practice you'll have this one down.

The beauty of this DVD is how he not only teaches you the move, but then goes on to show you a few effects (including a color-changing deck routine you'll use) that incorporate the move. With your imagination seeded from there, you can easily see where you can use this for a number of possibilities.

While I feel Fisher's "Search and Destroy" is a superior effect to own, the camera work on the teaching part of this is much better. The camera man on SaD kept wandering around during the filming like he'd lost interest and had better things to do. Here the camera is more stationary for the most part and the close ups help you see the moves clearly. I still feel this costs a little too much for what you're getting (even though it's the same price as "Search and Destroy"), though the move you'll learn here is invaluable.

Monday, January 30, 2012

Follow this carefully: you lay out a prediction card, then you get the spectator to name a number, then you hand THEM the deck and have them count down to that exact number and pull out THAT card. The two are the same. It's one of the Any Card At Any Number type effects with a slight variation, and it's amazing to see.

There are no difficult sleights with this effect (just one possible move you might have to do, and it looks natural). You will have to work out a little simple math very quickly, but it is really easy. The rest falls on presentation. There are a few variations provided here that give you different ways to present this effect (using different cards!) so you can repeat this effect at a later time and have a different outcome. Even creating your own predicted cards (in case you want a particular one chosen for some reason) is easy.

This one has it all and is one of those easy-to-do miracles that will blow their minds. As an added bonus, it's absolutely possible to use the deck for other effects after you do this trick, though you will need to open with Grail as it's not a closer unless you do a deck switch.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

I'm what you might call a lazy magician in that I love effects that give you big results without spending hours of my life practicing some incredibly hard card control move that might or might not work in the real world under pressure. When I saw the video for "Search and Destroy" I immediately loved the audience participation factor and the way this appeared a "perfect length" card trick. In other words, when someone comes up and says "Show me a trick", you need something that will engage them, be impromptu, allow you to concentrate on presentation more than knuckle-busting, and not go on so long as to bore the spectator. This effect fits the bill perfectly.

In essence, you will have to learn one card control move--and most magicians already have at least one they always fall back on. Just in case you don't, however, Aaron teaches you one that gets the job done. From that point onward, it's all pretty much showmanship as the rest of the magic happens in the spectator's hands. Is it easy to figure out? Well, I wouldn't repeat this one too often because it's sort of a logical effect that can be figured out after a few viewings. That has to be the shortcoming of any "no heavy sleights" card effect (it's not self-working, so I won't call it that). Still, it's perfect for the right situation and crowd.

The only other thing to remember is that you'll need to be a showman to make this fun. You don't have to be as outgoing as Aaron is on the video (he's almost annoying at one point), but you'll need to play up the crowd to make this effect appear bigger than what it is. I highly recommend this one to anyone looking to add some easy sparkle to their act.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

If you've ever become jaded with magic and just can't appreciate that "WOW!" moment the spectators feel anymore, then this is the effect for you. In all honesty, I've watched the change happen dozens of times and even though I know how it's being done, it still blows my mind each time. "Extreme Burn 2.0" is easily the most "magical magic effect" I've seen this year.

You read the copy of some tricks saying it'll even fool you and such, but this one really can. With the 2.0 version, Sanders has taken every weak spot of the first presentation (and there weren't many) and fixed them. Now you can hand out the bills when you are finished with the transformation and have no fear of anything being discovered or said since you are handing the normal, ungimmicked money. You can perform this effect completely surrounded if need be, though the best changes are the ones you can do with the spectators in front of you.

And speaking of changes, Sanders offers you more than you'll ever use. He even updates some and adds a few more from the original. No matter what your performance style is, I promise you there's one in here to fit it. This will require a lot of practice to begin with, but just watching the demo video will show you how worth it the practice will be.

The gimmick is fairly easy to construct and will take you about 15 minutes or so. If you treat it well, it will last you a very long time. The gimmick construction will depend on the amount of money you're wanting to change ($1 to $20, or $1 to $100, for example) but nothing is permanent you can you spend the cash later if need be.

I'm usually not a fan of pricey DVDs with only one effect on them (and the gimmick here would cost you less than a dollar at a hardware store), but just the wealth of information on this makes it worth it. Sanders takes this amazing effect apart piece by piece and gives you everything you need to adapt it to your style of performing.

I promise you when you get this down smoothly and perform it for the first time, you'll keep this one close forever. This truly is as close to real magic as you'll ever get as far as your spectators are concerned.

Monday, September 20, 2010

I love this effect! The demo video is straight to the point and gives you the perfect idea of what's happening here. The spectator chooses any card (yep, any card) and it's the only card in the deck that has anything on it. The rest of the deck is blank! While this may sound like the standard blizzard, the nice thing here is you're using one deck, and everything resets nicely. There is also a bonus effect here called "White Trash" that is an "Out of This World" type effect with a nice twist.

The only thing I don't like about this effect is that there comes a point where it's possible for a spectator to choose a suit that you'll need to sort of magician's force them out of. To me, that lessens the effect greatly from the pick any card strength. To fix that, here's a variation on the trick I came up with that is to me just as miraculous: ask the spectator why they chose that card, then say it doesn't matter and show that it is the only blank card in the pile of four. Then spread the deck and show the rest of the deck is printed up with their chosen card being the only blank one. Yes, it's an entirely different effect that way, but the spectator will feel they've truly chosen the only card in the deck that was blank and have no idea how they did it. If you wanted to, you could then repeat the effect to a different spectator and if they chose any other suit you can do the Twisted Blizzard as written...giving you a real miracle for the spectator of how the deck went blank after they saw the faces on there.

This is one of those wonderful effects that you practice for a few minutes and then can just concentrate totally on performance rather than worrying about keeping up with everything going on. The DVD is a great step-by-step guide to everything you need to know.

If you're looking for a nice effect that gives you a great bang for the reasonable price, grab this one.

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About Me

Author of "Stolen Lives" from River Oak Publishers. Also the author of "Portal - TimeSlip:Book 1". Many of my short stories have been published in various anthologies. I also contributed regularly to InFuzeMag.com.